The flight over was rather difficult for both of us. The temperature in the cabin had to have been in the mid to high 70s for the majority of the trip. Nearly everyone was covered in a sweaty sheen. On top of that, the flight service was less than we had hoped, with only 2 beverage services on the entire flight. Hot, cramped and dehydrated, neither of us were able to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time. Nevertheless, we were still able to pass the time in relatively good spirits, enjoying a number of movies and playing a game or two of Scrabble (love the travel version!)
We arrived in Jo'burg around 6am local time (midnight Eastern) and made our way through customs. We proceeded to the domestic terminal and were given a boarding pass for this morning's flight, as we had missed the previous day's connection because of the cancelation out of JFK. We were able to grab a quick nap on this leg which allowed us to hit the ground running in Cape Town.
It was good that we were (sort of) rested, since the first order of business was to get our rental car and proceed into the City of Cape Town. Now, it's important to note here that South Africa subscribes to the British style of driving - so we basically learned to drive anew this morning. It's not only that the driver is seated on the right, or that one drives on the left hand side of the road, but the signage is also in an ENTIRELY different in style and occasionally presented in a different language, presumably Afrikaans.
[Note: for those of you concerned, this was NOT taken while we driving; it is shown merely to illustrate the point above]
We were able to overcome these challenges through remarkable perseverance, Rachel's natural driving skills, Becky's navigation prowess (in spite of motion sickness) and because of Becky's ability to overcome an innate fear of Rachel's driving, be it domestic or abroad. We adopted the practice of chanting reminders to ourselves in traffic or at turns. Becky's job was to repeat "on the left, on the left, on the left" while Rachel said, "Rachel in the middle, Rachel in the middle, Rachel in the middle." In worked quite well, at least insomuch as nothing has been filed with Cape Town authorities that we know of ... but there did seem to be a lot of horns blowing in our vicinity. One can never tell if these were directed at us or not ...
This first driving excursion led us to Table Mountain. We won't go into details how it led us to Table Mountain, suffice to say that if one is driving in circles in this city, you'll eventually run into Table Mountain; seriously, its a big mountain, it's hard to miss. This makes it the easiest attraction to get to on day one.
One of the attractions at Table Mountain, and a must-do on your list if you visit Cape Town, is a cable-car ride to the Summit. The tickets were affordable, at R180/each ($26USD) and we were able to catch a car up the mountain with very little wait. As we waited at the base, we were quite taken by the slope of the cable car assent. The vertical rise was probably more than 1000 feet, in only a few hundred horizontal feet. The cars we round in shape and had windows along all sides. The floor within rotates a full cycle in the ascent/descent to provide a 360 view to riders. We had read in one of our guide books, that on windy days, the floor is actually sitting on water to provide more stability to the platform. If we had to guess, today the platform had water.
Although we had both read a good deal about the summit of Table Mountain, none of our research did the place justice. It is, quite simply, other worldly. The views of the City, looking over the Ocean and the incredible geologic and floral features at the top create a remarkable experience. There are a number of hiking trails, which was much needed therapy after our marathon flights from earlier in the day. We spent over an hour exploring and reading up on the unique flora of the area.
After some time, we began to notice a rather ominous weather front blowing in towards the City. Having been warned that adverse weather could cause the cable car to shut down, we made our way back to the tram. And just in time ...
The clouds did, in fact, roll in. Within minutes of returning to the base, the entire summit and the City below were completely obscured.
And with that, we took our leave of the Mountain and its moody weather.
We then proceeded South to the suburbs along the coast to find our accommodations for the evening. Becky made an excellent choice of a quaint guesthouse a mere block from the ocean. Standing on the veranda, you can hear and see the pounding of the surf below.
Tomorrow's breakfast will be served there, which will provide an opportunity to share some of our views. But, for now we'll say good night and that we miss you all and send our love.
For now the agenda for tomorrow includes some combination of Robben's Island, the Victoria and Albert Waterfront, the City Center and the Cape Peninsula. Obviously, we can't do it all and having lost a day, something will need to be left undone, but we'll figure that out as the day unfolds.
So, to one and all goodnight from South Africa.
Becky & Rachel
p.s. Jay, we haven't fully confirmed, but initial observation indicates that water in toilets does - in fact - flush in the opposite direction. We'll keep you posted on our findings.
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Location:Kalk's Bay, South of Cape Town, South Africa
Location:Kalk Bay, Western Cape, South Africa
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